"She had a relatively happy childhood," Kafka said softly. "I've seen what an unhappy childhood looks like. That kind of childhood can take a lifetime to heal. But a happy childhood can heal you for a lifetime."
At those words, Number Seven briefly slipped into a daze.
"A happy childhood heals you for a lifetime, while an unhappy childhood takes a lifetime to heal," Number Seven murmured. "It seems everyone in our family had an unhappy childhood."
The sea breeze gently stirred the curtains, and the sunlight on her face came and went.
Meanwhile, upstairs.
"White goes here? Are you sure?"
Herta sat at the table with a white stone in hand, asking Chu Mu beside her.
Chu Mu's vision had recovered considerably, but the board before him was still little more than a blur of black and white. He couldn't make out the positions of individual stones.
Herta placed the stones for him.
Across the table, Silver Wolf tossed a black stone in her hand and said:
"Hey, hey, could you make that hint any more obvious?"
Embarrassed and annoyed, Herta replied:
"I'm just checking one more time! He's the one making the decisions, not me. If you don't like it, try playing a round against me!"
"No way!" Silver Wolf shook her head without hesitation.
She and Herta might not get along, but she wasn't stupid enough to compete with Herta in a battle of intellect!
Unless Herta developed dementia someday, Silver Wolf wouldn't even consider playing mind games with her.
Just then, Chu Mu nodded.
"Put it there!"
He had a board in his mind, with black and white stones arrayed across it.
Every move both sides made appeared clearly on it. Memorizing three hundred-odd positions was easy for Chu Mu.
All he had to do